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November 4-10; Linking Size and Smarts

Just as body size is in part inheritable, so too is the anatomy of the human brain. The volume of gray matter in the frontal lobes is under particularly tight genetic control, according to a study by Dr. Paul Thompson of the University of California at Los Angeles. He found that the larger the volume of gray matter -- a measure of the number of brain cells -- the higher a person's intelligence was likely to be. The connection is on average; an individual's I.Q. cannot be gauged this way. The degree to which intelligence is inherited has long been disputed; Dr. Thompson's physical measures of gray matter may help narrow the argument. Nicholas Wade